When you are old and grey and full of sleep. The rhythmic pattern of the above line is

Analyze the question: The line is from W.B. Yeats's poem "When You Are Old". We need to identify its metre (rhythmic pattern) by scanning the stresses.

Concept: A foot is a group of syllables with a stress pattern:

• Iambic: unstressed, STRESSED (da-DUM)
• Trochaic: STRESSED, unstressed (DUM-da)
• Anapestic: unstressed, unstressed, STRESSED (da-da-DUM)
• Dactylic: STRESSED, unstressed, unstressed (DUM-da-da)

Scan the line:

"When YOU are OLD and GREY and FULL of SLEEP"

Breaking it into feet:

| When / YOU | are / OLD | and / GREY | and / FULL | of / SLEEP | |---|---|---|---|---| | u / | u / | u / | u / | u / |

• That gives 10 syllables in 5 feet, each with an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed one.
• This is iambic pentameter, which is Yeats's metre in this poem.

Answer: The rhythmic pattern is iambic, which is option D.

Tip: Count syllables. A 10-syllable line that alternates soft-LOUD (da-DUM, da-DUM...) is almost always iambic pentameter. Also remember that "iamb" sounds like a heartbeat: da-DUM. If the line starts on a stressed syllable, think trochaic. If it gallops with two light syllables per beat, think anapestic or dactylic.